E312 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DDQD33SESaH 




, »* A <* 'o . * * Jy ^ci ... . 



s>^^ 















^ • -r^ A*' 












V 



AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY 

IRISH SONG 
RELATING TO WASHINGTON 



BY 
THOMAS O'MEEHAN 






A C|UcU U>n4iiTi" TU >t:5Ui*tt a*m^po 'puiitfiiiO >n>;yt«0Uc inlK ^^'^ 





M> \ — — IP' — ] — r "'i' " ■--—-■ • — 1 — i-i"-^*^^ 







AN EIGHTEENTH -CENTURY 

IRISH SONG 
RELATING TO WASHINGTON 



BY 
THOMAS O'MEEHAN 



REPRINTED FROM 

THE PUBLICATIONS 

OF 

€l|e Colonial ^ocittyi of iSl^aUfifacljus^rttfif 
Vol. XIII 



CAMBRIDGE 
JOHN WILSON AND SON 

191 1 



.Oi-5' 



S. "2- ^ ' f '2 — 



AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY 

IRISH SONG 
RELATING TO WASHINGTON 



254 THE COLONIAL aOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [Feb. 



FEBRUARY MEETING, 1911 

A Stated Meeting of the Society was held at No. 25 
-^^ Beacon Street, Boston, on Thursday, 23 February, 1911, 
at three o'clock in the afternoon, the President, Henhy 
Lefavour, LL.D., in the chair. 

The Records of the last Stated Meeting were read and 
approved. 

The Corresponding Secretary reported that letters had 
been received from Mr. Mark Antony DeWolfe Howe 
and Dr. Charles Pickering Putnam, accepting Resident 
Membership. 

Mr. George L. Kittredge exhibited a photograph of a 
fine portrait of Wasliington in the possession of Professor F. 
Wulff of Lund, Sweden, thought to have been painted in 
the eighteenth century by a French artist. It is clearly a 
copy of the Lansdowne portrait by Stuart. Professor Wulff 
had the kindness to send a photograph of this portrait for 
exhibition to the Society .i 

Mr. Kittredge also exhibited a photograph of a page of 
an Irish manuscript belonging to the Royal Irish Academy, 
Dublin ; and spoke as follows : 

AN IRISH SONG RELATING TO WASHINGTON 

Dr. Tom Peete Cross of Harvard University recently informed 
me of the existence of a manuscript in the Library of the Royal 
Irish Academy containing a short eighteenth-century poem about 
Washington. At my request, Dr. Cross procured for me a photograph 

* Dr. Henry Goddaxd Leach of Harvard University called Mr. Kittredge's 
attention to the portrait and procured the photograph from Professor Wulff. 
Dr. Leach recognized the photograph as of the Lansdowne type. 



1911] AN IRISH SONG RELATING TO WASHINGTON 255 

of the page that bears the poem.^ This page is presented in full-size 
facsimile. For the following transliteration and translation I am 
indebted to Dr. Cross and Professor F. N. Robinson. 

The poem is a song by Thomas O'Miodhachain (O'Meehan), 
lamenting the woes of the Pretender Charles Edward, but foretelling 
his final triumph and the restoration of Ireland to the Stuart rule. 
Incidentally, in a highly picturesque stanza, O'Meehan speaks of 
the news that has just reached him that Washington has discomfited 
Howe. The reference must be to the Evacuation of Boston on 
March 17, 1776. This fixes the date of the song. The manuscript 
is somewhat later, but was written in the eighteenth century. 

Professor Robinson has furnished me with the subjoined note on 
Thomas O'Meehan, the author of this song: 

Very little of O'Meehan's verse seems to have been published. A 
lamentation, apparently by him, on the death of Mary Baun 
MacDonnell is printed in Brian O'Looney's edition of the Clare 
Bards (Dublin, 1863), p. 178, and the editor states that O'Meehan 
was a schoolmaster of high repute at Ennis, and that he continued to 
write until 1798. According to the Catalogue of the British Museum, 
another poem of his is printed as a preliminary address to John 
Lloyd's Short Tour; or an Impartial Description of the County of 
Clare, 1780. 

The facsimile shows the heading and the first two stanzas of 
another of O'Meehan's songs, but this has nothing to do with 
America. 

Transliteration of the Irish Text^ 
Tomds 6 Miodhachain cecinit. Air Washington's Frohck. Ar an sean 

fhonn Sir (?) Sud an Fear B[ ] ^ gan Briste. 
A chraobha comainn na nGaoidhel ccomais do shaoircheap mhuireannach 

MMedh 
Ta treathlag tuirseach a pise le bniscar gan r^im fe urchall ciosa 
Sin sceala * sonais do thearnaigh chugainra a ccein tar dhromaibh na 

dileanw 
Go bh-fuil meirligh mustair go deighenach gonta na bheile fiolar is 

faoileanw. 

1 MS. 23. L. 35, p. 128. 

^ Contractions are expanded in italics. 

3 Read B[reagh]? 

* Perhaps to be expanded scealaidhe. 



256 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [Feb. 

Is fonn s'is aitheas leam Howe s'na Sagsanaigh tabhartha trascartha 

choidhche 
Sa crobhaire Washington cabharthach calma a cceann s'a cceannas a 

Tigheacht 
Sin arahais ag screadadh gan chuil gan chathatr gan truip gan barcaibh 

ar taoide 
Is fe samhain go dearbhthe buir na Breataine a b-piinc fa thearmain 

Laoisigh. 

D'cis an chluithche-si Eire leigfear da eeile dlightheach ceart dileas 

An ieincdh fuinneamach faobhrach fulangach Searlas soineanrita 

Stiobhard 
Biaidh reim ag h\edh s'go saoghal an fhiolair cead feir is uisge ag Gaoidhe- 

laibh 
Gach geag ag QWedh le h-eigean duillec^A s'na h-eisg ag lingedh asa lintibh. 

Go saor am fhochatr le m^in dom fhocalaibh ag dheanadh an ghortha 6 

Mhaoidheachan 
An te gan dochma nach n-gl6asfaigh ^ portaibh go s^idtear gothaibh 

a pipe 
Taosgam srutha don daor-phunch torainn is reabam cornaibh crin- 

bhreach 
A Thoirdhealbhaigh brostaigh lead Mheidhbh inghin Chrotaigh is claon 

do chosa chum rincedh. 

Translation 

Thomas O'Meehan cecinit. Air, Washington's Frolick, to the old tune 
of "Seek Yonder the Fine Fellow without Breeches" (?). 

1. O branches of the league of the mighty Gaels, of the noble, long- 
haired stem of Milesius,^ who are exhausted, tired, in their struggle 
with the rabble, without power, under shackle of tribute! 

Those are stories of good fortune that have come to us from afar over 
the ridges of the sea, — that the arrogant robbers are wounded at last, 
the food of eagles and sea-gulls. 

2. It is a source of joy and triumph in my eyes that Howe and the 
Saxons are taken and overthrown forever, and that the sturdy Wash- 
ington, helpful and brave, is at the head and command of his realm. 

The hirelings are screeching, without shelter, without city, without 

' Before n-gUasfaigh, n-glaoghfaigh is written and then expunged. 
' For the suggestion that miledh is Milesius, the translators are indebted to 
Professor Douglas Hyde. 



1911] AN IRISH SONG RELATING TO WASHINGTON 257 

army, without ships on the tide. Verily the boors of Britain before 
November Day suddenly will be under the bondage of Louis.^ 

3. After this exploit, Ireland will be given to her lawful spouse, just, 
beloved, the vigorous champion, sharp, patient, the innocent Charles 
Stuart. 

Coiu'age shall be with the poet, and, for the lifetime of the eagle, per- 
mission to use grass and water shall belong to the Gael, every branch 
returning with the power of the leaves [i. e. bursting out into fresh leaf- 
age], and the fish jumping out of their waters. 

4. Freely beside me, with good will to my words, kindling the heat, 
[sits] O'Meehan, the man without weakness, who will not make ready 
with tunes till it is blown with the sounds of his pipe. Let us drain 
rivers of good flowing punch and flourish the ancient drinking-horns. 

O Turlough, make haste with thy Meave daughter of Crotach,^ and 
bend thy legs to the dance! 

The last stanza is not intelligible in all its details. It is in general 
a summons to festivity. Turlough and Meave (Medb) are either 
friends of the poet or types of village lovers. 

The "air" of the song is mentioned, in the heading, as "Wash- 
ington's Froliek" (in English). Mr. James E. Whitney, Jr., oblig- 
ingly writes that he knows no tune by that name. "1 suspect," he 
adds, "that the song was set to an existent tune to which a new 
title was given, expressive of the subject — a very common practice." ^ 
This conjecture of Mr. Whitney's is substantiated by the form of the 
heading, in which an Irish tune is mentioned. 

Professor Robinson has had the kindness to give me a stanza of 
another eighteenth-century Irish poem which also celebrates some 
victory of Washington over the British. It is as follows, both text 
and translation being from Professor Douglas Hyde's MacTernan 
Prize Essay on Gaelic Poetry {Filidheacht Ghaedhealach) , Dublin, 
1903, pages 13G-137. 

Do labhair 'na dheigh sin go beusach i nGaoidheilge, 
A's d'aithris dam sgeala do mheadaigh mo cliroidhe-se. 
Go rabhadur Bearaibh an Bhearla go claoidhte, 
Gan armaibh, gan ^adach, gan treadaibh, gan tiorthaibh. 



1 That laoisigh is Louis XVI, is Professor Hyde's suggestion. 
^ For Chrotaigh perhaps we should read chruthaigh, "shapely." 
» Letter to Mr. Albert Matthews, March 3, 1911. Cf. p. 259, note 2, below. 

17 



258 THE COLONIAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS [Feb. 

Taid caithte i gcarcair 'n-a ndrongaibh gan treoir, 

Faoi fhad-tuirsc i nglasaibli ag Washington beo, 

I mairg, gan gradam, gan caraid, gan Ion, 

A's iad ag sgreadaigh le h-easbuidh na feola, 

Do chleachtadh na bathlaigh do chaitheamh gan teora. 

She spoke thereafter, notably, in Irish and she told me tidings that 
swelled my heart how the bears of the English-language were over- 
thrown without arms, without clothing, without flocks, without lands; 
they were thrown into prison in bands, without patience, beneath weari- 
ness, in locks (i. e. locked in) by lively Washington, in woe, without 
fame, without friend, without provisions, and they screeching with the 
want of meat which the clowns used to be in the habit of eating without 
limits (i. e. beyond measure). 

Professor Robinson has also been good enough to write to Pro- 
fessor Douglas Hyde, the eminent Irish scholar, with reference to 
Thomas O'Meehan, and Dr. Hyde, with his usual courtesy, has sent 
a number of important notes on the subject. 

Dr. Hyde writes that, although the song now printed is new to 
him, he has seen a number of Thomas O'IMeehan's poems in manu- 
script. He adds a reference to another published poem by this 
author. This was addressed to the IMunster poet Tadhg Gaolach 
O Suilebhain on the occasion of the latter's retirement to religious 
life. It is printed in Father Dinneen's edition of the poems of Tadhg 
Gaolach (Gaelic League, Dublin, 1903, pp. 29 ff). 

In the same letter. Dr. Hyde suggests the identification of Laoi- 
seach (genitive Laoingh), in the second stanza of the Washington 
song, with Louis XVI of France, which Professor Robinson regards 
as certainly correct, and which has been adopted in the translation. 
Miledh, in the first line of the song, may be the word for " soldiers," 
but the proper name Milesius (also proposed by Dr. Hyde) seems 
more likely to be the proper interpretation. 

, Concerning the persons named in the last stanza, Dr. Hyde says 
he can give no information. O'Mhaoidheachain, he writes, seems 
to be a piper, and a different man from the poet (O'lNIiodhachain). 
Turlough and Meave Dr. Hyde takes to be father and daughter, 
but he does not find the text completely readable as it stands. He 
suggests, therefore, the emendation Meidhhh-ingin, which would be 
a compound signifying "Meave-Iike daughter," or "daughter beau- 



1911] AN IRISH SONG RELATING TO WASHINGTON 259 

tiful as Meave " (the famous legendary Queen of Connaught, per- 
haps the original of Queen Mab). He would also change Chrotaigh 
to chruthaigh, "shapely," an emendation ah-eady suggested as a 
possibility by Professor Robinson/ but not adopted in the transla- 
tion. Thus, according to Dr. Hyde's view, the passage would run: 
"O Turlough, make haste with thy Meave-like, shapely daughter, 
and bend thy legs to the dance!" 

Dr. Hyde offers the emendation cruinn-bhreac ("round-speckled") 
for the epithet crinbhreach applied to the drinking-horns in this stanza. 
The latter is a dubious word, but, since it may mean "ancient" 
(Hterally, "withered-speckled"), that translation has been adopted.^ 

Mr. Albert Matthews remarked that at the close of the 
Revolution Washington received a congratulatory address 
from the Yankee Club of Stewartstown, County Tyrone, 
Ireland. This address has apparently not been preserved, but 
.Washington'sreply, dated Mount Vernon, 20 January, 1784, 
was printed by Sparks. Washington wrote in part: 

It is with unfeigned satisfaction, that I accept your congratulation on 
the late happy and glorious revolution. ... If, in the course of our 
successful contest, any good consequences have resulted to the oppressed 
kingdom of Ireland, it will afford a new source of fehcitation to all who 
respect the interests of humanity.^ 

1 See p. 257 note 2, above. 

2 As to the air (the Irish name of which is not wholly legible) Dr. W. H. 
Grattan Flood, the distinguished authority on Irish music, informs Dr. Hyde 
that the tune is probably that sometimes entitled Sa Maidin Fear gan Briste ("In 
the Morning the Man without Breeches" ) and better known as Nora an Chuil 
Omra ("Nora of the Amber Hair"). The music, Dr. Flood adds, was- printed 
as ' The Poor Thresher" in 1790, and a different version, entitled Bean Dubh 
an Ghleanna ("The Dark Woman of the Glen") is in O'Daly's Poets and 
Poetry of Munster (see the third edition, Dublin, 1850, p. 184). 

' Writings of Washington, ix. 13-14. 



84 



m^r^ 


















'oK 



'^o^ 








.-^^^ 







<c^°^ 



^^^^. 






.^^ 



.0^ 






''^v.9^''' 



■ V„.^ ,-:^^-. "^-./ ^*> 



'♦$/. % 
v-^^ 




^^^ 

'**. 



■^o. 



^mmFrr^rm^ 









a5°<^ 



o > 



.^q. 


























-*i°^ 






.!b^% 



■.^^^ .0^ 










* '^^ -^^ 






-oV^^ 






6^^ 















.■Ok ■&. * A^^ • "^i yC^ ^Jt^iu/^^ ..a. /I »• . 



VyHRfBOOKBEd:>M)IG i 



"v^ 



A' 






* 



"^feniviile. Pa ^ 




